Any good documentaries which cover some area between the late Roman Empire untill the fall of the WRE?

[Le_Swede]

Hey all!

As someone who is getting an increased interest in the timeperiod of decline within the Roman Empire (meaning from the end of the Five Good Emperor-period up untill the fall of the WRE) I'm quite disheartened to not be able to find some good documentaries on the subject.

Do anyone on this forum know of any documentaries covering some of this timeperiod that you'd recommend watching?

[RGA]

There is a 13-hour long TV series called "Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire" (not to be confused with BBC's Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire) which covers Roman history from Marius to its very end. Like most other documentaries, it's somewhat simplified and dramatised, but over all a good documentary.

[Doe3000]

Talking about Ancient Rome: Rise and Fall of an Empire, the BBC production (not the US version RGA mentioned above) has an episode about the Fall of Rome, it's heavily dramatized but isn't too bad overall.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Geronimo2006]

That documentary is quite accurate except for having classical shields in the 5th century i.e. tower shields instead of oval ones.

[Magister Militum Flavius Aetius]

Don't trust any of the props, weapons, or armor you see in TV documentaries. Very, very, few of them even use historically accurate stuff.

EDIT: The Heroes and Villans Attila episode isn't bad in terms of the history. The costumes... are better than most but still .

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/k2NkUtsJ1zfwnN3azWb

[l_commando]

There is also the follow-up series to Rome: Rise and Fall of an Empire called Barbarians. They have the (albeit heavily dramatized and poorly costumed) histories of most of the major invading tribes of the 3rd-6th Centuries. It's actually not bad.

Here's a playlist of a few. I don't believe that's all of them though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgAZ...2C6024047FC825

Then I also remember seeing two BBC Documentaries on Constantine and The Sack of Rome in 410. I can't remember what they were called but I'm sure you can find them on YouTube as well. The costumes weren't too bad and the events depicted were actually very well presented

[wulfgar610]

(albeit heavily dramatized and poorly costumed)

Seems to have been a German made Euro series that was given English commentary by discovery channel. At first I disdained them but for sheer entertainment value I've found myself watching them again and again. Yep, really pushing the noble Germanic barbarian theme, but so entertaining! Good story telling. My favorite is the one on the Lombards with the finer points of head collecting.

Don't trust any of the props, weapons, or armor you see in TV documentaries. Very, very, few of them even use historically accurate stuff.

Made on the cheap reusing the same stock caste. I could imagine, they dress up hopefulls in cheap outfits and they tell them to run around like barbarians for a few days. They very best of B-grade film making.